Commentary

Since 2006, one or more of my children have been in preschool through sixth grades at Calvary Baptist Academy.

But with four weeks left in this school year, I’ll soon be saying goodbye to “being the mom of an elementary student” as my last child completes sixth grade (which is considered elementary at Calvary).

There are so many things I’ll miss as I end this stage of parenthood.

I’ll look back fondly on things like Field Day, happily snapping photos of the sack race and tug-of-war competition. And I’ll miss actually being wanted there by my child.

I’ll miss the annual elementary Christmas and Spring Musicals.

I’ll miss the field trips to Safety Town, the Tyler Zoo, the Louisiana museum at the fairgrounds, the bowling alley, the trampoline park, and the skating rink. I’ll miss the picnics at Betty Virginia Park and the trips to SciPort.

And I’ll miss my child wanting me to attend those field trips.

They’re different; yet, in reality they’re the same:

Slaps and savage slaying.

The first one (a slap) refers to Will Smith’s smacking Chris Rock across the face at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, Mar. 27. And, the other one— the “savage slaying”—refers to the sinister, heartless killing and destruction by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

For sure, Will Smith’s unexpected (and uncalled for) slap was far less damaging than Putin’s bombing and killing of innocent civilians; however, in reality, they both sprang from a sinful nature and unbridled actions.

The difference was: one was spontaneous and the other was cold and calculated.

Yes, again, a slap is far different in damage and long-term effect than wholesale destruction and loss of life. But, both were unnecessary and could have been handled differently.

Not long ago, my middle son Bryce, who rarely gets sick and never complains about feeling bad, said, “Mom, I really need to go to the doctor.”

“What’s wrong?” I said, wide-eyed, sitting forward on the couch.

“My throat. It’s killing me. And I’m tired all the time. And there’s these two huge lymph nodes on the side of my neck.”

Away to Mid City Pediatrics we went as he slept in the front seat.

After nasal swabs, a throat swab, and a finger stick, we waited. “Well, it’s mono,” Dr. Cockrell said. Since it’s a virus, there’s not a lot that can be done for mono, but Dr. Cockrell agreed to a Celestone shot to help with Bryce’s throat pain. As we were walking to our car after he received the shot, Bryce suddenly said, “Mom, I’m gonna pass out.”

He suddenly went to his knees and then thankfully I was able to catch him and help him all the way down so that he avoided hitting his head.

It seems like they have nothing in common; but, in reality, they do:

Russian roulette and April Fool’s Jokes.

As you probably know, one (“Russian roulette”) is where someone will place a live round in the cylinder of a pistol, spin the chamber, point the barrel at one’s head and pull the trigger. And, hopefully, they’ll “get lucky” (as the ones playing this sick “game” put it).

Why? Who knows?

Maybe they get an adrenaline rush by doing so; but, as some would say, they’re “tempting fate” (whatever that is).

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like tempting God to me: and that’s exactly what the devil was trying to get Jesus to do that day when he “took him up into the Holy City and set Him on the pinnacle (highest point) of the Temple” (Matthew 4:5).

“Go ahead; jump off!” the evil one said with a fiendish tone in his voice.

My sister was talking to me recently about the summer camp her son will be attending in late June.

“He’s so excited,” she said. “It’s all he talks about.”

I just can’t relate.

I attended a few summer camps as a kid, but from the minute I arrived, I secretly counted the hours until it was time to go home. I’m not even sure why I agreed to go.

My first camp experience was Clara Springs Baptist Encampment in Pelican, La. I was eight years old. There were some fun times there, such as learning the harp and singing silly songs in the mess hall before supper, but overall I just recall the late nights in the top bunk missing my mother.

Then there were the two summers between 5th and 6th grades that I went to 4-H camp (Camp Grant Walker) in Pollock, La.

For a while, we’ve been wanting to replace the fence between our house and our neighbors’ house, splitting the cost with them.

“Let’s wait for the lumber prices to come down,” we have all continued to say.

Around eighteen months ago, one six-foot cedar picket was around $1.50. Now, it’s about $4 per picket. And lumber prices are expected to continue to rise well into 2022.

In the meantime, there are some holes at the bottom of the fence that are just big enough for my miniature schnauzers to stick their head through and say hello to the neighbor’s schnauzer.

This is all fine and dandy except when the neighbors are dog sitting their son’s gigantic Boxer with a head as big as a killer whale. Then, they have to line their side of the fence with a plastic pet pen to protect our dogs from literally getting their heads bitten off.

Of course, the price of repairing the fence is really the least of any of our worries.

We were on one of those all-day errand runs a few weeks back, and stopped at a sandwich place for lunch. Both of us ordered a French Dip Sandwich, and while eating it, we did our normal thing – “How can we make this at home?”

So, we finally got in the kitchen and started working on figuring out the answer to the question. If you are looking for a quick and simple meal this week, try a French Dip Sandwich. It really is easy to make, and delicious. Just serve it with a side of chips and pickles or take it a step further and make a potato salad to go with it. Either way, you will have a tasty meal for dinner!

Note: This recipe calls for a slow cooker, but you can just as easily bake the roast in the oven or in a cast iron Dutch oven on the stove!

French Dip Sandwich

Ingredients:

1 boneless Chuck Roast (about 4-5 pounds)

Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper, and Tony Chachere’s (to taste)

3 teaspoons vegetable oil

Evil.

We’re seeing it unfold right before our very eyes: the bombing of hospitals and orphanages. . .the use of cluster bombs and vacuum bombs. . .shooting at refugees as they attempt to flee the country. . .a Russian tank firing on a passenger car with an elderly, retired Ukrainian couple inside, etc.

That’s in addition to the capturing of two nuclear power plants, including Chernobyl and turning the power off to it—which could unleash massive amounts of radiation.

And, now (as of this writing), the Russians are accusing the United States of having biotech labs in Ukraine; however, U.S. officials are warning that the Soviets often do this type thing to shift the blame when they using biological and chemical weapons (like they repeatedly did in Syria).

For many years in my childhood, I felt terrified by Baptist pastors who seemed to have a goal of convincing saved people that they were actually lost.

It caused me severe anxiety as a child, though I never told anyone. I just lived in perpetual fear that I was hell-bound, even though I truly loved and trusted Christ.

One time as a little girl, I heard a preacher say, “If you can’t recall the exact moment you were saved, you are not saved.”

That statement scared me, because I don’t have a dramatic conversion story. For Years, I tried to recall “that exact moment,” but still to this day, I cannot. It took fortyfive years for me to finally hear a Christian “testimony of conversion” that parallels mine in every way: I recently heard someone ask Dr. John Lennox on a YouTube video, “What is your conversion story?” and I was stunned to hear Lennox literally tell my own story.

Surely we recognize the great dangers to our country from across the globe and the desire of ruthless nations to seize the opportunity and fill the vacuum when they witness American weakness, either because we are unaware or incapable of stopping the advance of evil.

Does anyone believe this would be going on if Pres. Trump were still president? In fact, in a recent poll published by The Hill, 62 percent of Americans say that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine under President Trump.

Do we really believe it’s a mere coincidence that Russia is invading a sovereign country and China is looking at Taiwan like a shark does at chum in the water while Iran continues doing what it has never stopped doing— perfecting the enrichment of uranium so that it may realize its dream of a nuclear weapon that it would deploy against Israel and ultimately the U.S.